


The Colour Of Metal

by Chiefjolras



Category: Homestuck
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-14
Updated: 2013-05-14
Packaged: 2017-12-11 21:17:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,234
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/803355
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chiefjolras/pseuds/Chiefjolras
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sat in her hive, puzzling over quadrants and smells (what's new?) Terzezi is noisily interrupted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Colour Of Metal

Smelling colours had never particularly bothered Terezi; she had learned long ago to  
associate them with taste, and form a strange collage in her mind's eye. If Picasso  
and Monet could have ever seen inside Terezi's thinkpan, they'd have inspiration for  
life. No, it wasn't the colours that irritated her, rather the lack of them. She  
hated monochrome with a passion, but particularly greyscale. Black reeked of  
liquorice, but grey and white had always proved a problem. Even after hours of  
licking her hand, she couldn't find a suitable connection. The metal of her coin  
tasted similar, but that wasn't a nice taste... The particular shade of grey she  
wanted was nicer, but the things she associated it with weren't edible! They were  
things like 'warm' and 'shouty'.  
With a loud groan of frustration, she pulled the scarlet cloak around herself so she  
could smell nothing but candy, and closed her eyes, wishing it did something. This  
was proving such a problem... The quadrants all seemed simple enough in theory, but  
in practice they were hell! On one side all she could smell was a sickening shade of  
purple which only made her angrier... but on the other...  
It was over with Dave now. Dave with his strawberry shirt and liquorice glasses...  
He was nice, sure, but not quite flushed material. At least he'd thought the same  
and they were still on speaking terms. Several times he had tried to initiate a  
conversation about redrom, subtly introducing names (wrong names) for her to  
consider. He and Karkat were friends, sure, but it certainly didn't mean that Terezi  
could talk about it. Not with Dave, or anyone. Again, she sighed, starting to  
wonder whether she was simply destined for blackrom with that infernal Jugallo...  
Terezi frowned slightly as she caught a snatch of sea salt, or teal, and rubbed at  
her cheeks, cursing the tears under her breath.

Karkat had, as usual, been ranting at Strider for the majority of the morning, and  
although the human had clearly lost interest and started rapping, it didn't seem to  
make a lick of difference.  
"But you see, shit means nothing coming from Kankri! It's like the fucker just has  
an endless fucking supply of grub sauce and he's sat there fucking flinging it at  
you, regardless of whether you like it! Of all the dickwads of our ancestors, mine  
would be the one everyone hates, right?!"  
"Fuck, nothing rhymes with orange... How about 'No one cares 'bout Kankri, though his  
jumper's rad, and you should really shut up 'cause your story's fucking bad'? Yeah  
bro, I think that's a pretty fucking accurate rap..."  
"Strider, just shut up! No sane person on his fucking meteor would care about your  
fucking poetry if it shot them in the face!"  
"I'll have you know that Kanaya's pretty psyched about my rhymes. Even said she'd  
read me... what was it? Troll slam poetry?"  
Karkat rolled his eyes, "Fuck dude, you're a great bro and all, but you sure know how  
to bore a guy..."  
Dave chuckled, nodding, "Sure. Me and boredom are tight. Tells me all his  
secrets."  
"Uh... great. Well I'm gonna find Terezi. Haven't seen her all morning...  
Actually... since yesterday..."  
"Probably sneaking around the meteor with Gamzee"  
"Dude, shut up! I don't want to hear about that fucktard of a clown!" Karkat  
frowned,shoving his hands in his pockets moodily, and turning to leave.  
"Fine, fine... Go see little miss Justice, then"  
"I will, douche! I just told you I was going to see her! Jeez, think you've got a  
hole in your thinkpan..."

Why was everything so stupid?! Why did she hate Gamzee so much? The whole situation  
would be simpler if she could be the one to break it off... but she couldn't do it.   
Terezi had long given up trying to stifle her tears, and there were now teal streaks  
on her face. She hugged the cape closer, breathing in deeply and trying to calm  
herself down, but froze as she heard the door click.  
"Terezi?"  
Fuck. Just who she wanted to see...  
"Shit Terezi, are you alright?!" Footsteps got closer and she could hear movement in  
front of her. There was an interruption in the candy scented cloak, and there it  
was... the unnamable scent that could only mean one thing.  
"Terezi..? Are you crying?"  
"No! No... Maybe... Ugh, please go away Karkat..." She sighed, lowering her head  
inw such a way that she hoped he couldn't see her face.  
There was more movement as Karkat shuffled around to sit beside her, and his arm  
hovered over her shoulders, not quite sure whether he should let it make contact or  
not. For a while, they sat in silence, Terezi attempting (unsucessfully) to fight  
back quiet tears, and Karkat internally monologuing as to what he shoud do. She  
squeezed her eyes shut, shaking with another sob, and she leant to her right,  
cautiously resting her head on Karkat's shoulder at the same time as he let his arm  
drop around her shoulders. Although this simply made Terezi's position harder,  
Karkat seemed oblivious, instead allowing a grin to shame Gamzee's spread over his  
face.  
"What's wrong..?" He asked, his voice quiet for once.  
"I'm confused." Came the muffled response from under the head of the dragon.  
"About..?"  
"Quadrants."  
"Well, you know I'm the one to ask for advice on that! I swear I've helped every  
fucker to ever set foot on this goddamn meteor..."  
"You can't help with this..." She mumbled, turning her face into his shoulder.  
Karkat frowned, "Try me."  
Terezi bit her lip, feeling something nudge her cheek as he wiped her tears away.   
"I..." She sighed heavily before blurting everything in nigh on one breath, "I think  
I like someone flush-ways but I don't know what he'll think of me and that stupid  
clown because I hate him now and don't think I want to be black with him anymore but  
I can't leave so maybe if this guy likes me flush-ways back he can help and maybe  
things won't be scary anymore..."  
Karkat nodded slowly a few times, processing what she said before clearing his  
throat, "Obviously it depends on who it is... But if it's someone half-way decent-  
and they'd better fucking be if they're making you upset- I'm pretty sure they'd be  
able to help. And as for Gamzee, I'm pretty sure everyone hates that Jugallo as much  
as we hate that weird as fuck elixir he drinks... No one'll hate you for hating  
him."  
"You... You really mean that?" Terezi asked quietly, and Karkat nodded, ducking down  
to look at her.  
"H-hey, Tezi? I'm gonna do something, okay? Feel free to hit me or whatever if I've  
really screwed up, 'cause this is something that fucktard Strider told me-"  
"Oh no..."  
Karkat took a deep breath, gathering his confidence before leaning down and pressing  
his lips firmly to hers.

Although taken aback at first by the sudden assault on her senses, Terezi relaxed  
slightly, allowing herself a small smile as Karkat pulled away, watching her  
cautiously should he get a scalemate to the head.  
"Uh... Tezi?"  
Her grin had steadily widened, making it look like she was smiling with a row of  
knives, "You've solved two problems..."  
"Eh?"  
"I'm assuming that you like me back, which was the second problem... But now I know  
what grey tastes like, too."

**Author's Note:**

> Comments welcome


End file.
